Deep in Providence

Seventeen-year-old Miliani, of Philippine heritage, is grieving the death of her best friend and girl she loves, Jasmine, who was killed by a drunk driver while riding with her identical twin sister. But when Miliani and others sense Jasmine’s presence lingering at her funeral, Miliani hatches a plan to raise her spirit from the dead. She recruits her surviving best friends—Latina-coded Inez, a devout Catholic who soon finds herself pregnant, and biracial (Black and white) Natalie, who struggles to support her younger brother in the face of their mother’s drug reliance. Miliani leads her friends through increasingly powerful magical rites to prepare for Jasmine’s resurrection, but she hides a secret: the price of resurrecting the dead is high, and Jasmine will need to share a body to survive. In alternating voices, Neilson’s intensely character-driven, slowly paced debut traces three grief-stricken teens’ loss of a beloved figure—and hoped-for versions of themselves. Imbuing each with distinct flaws and gifts, to say nothing of the complicated relationships binding the girls together in love and friendship, the story fully immerses the reader in a magic-infused Providence, R.I. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jess Regel, Foundry Literary + Media. (May)